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This week's prompt was 'In the City' (I wrote it down incorrectly *sigh*).

My process is below for those interested.

1. I used a Shock Yellow Light Montana Marker to color the entire page.

2. Then I used Shock Orange to color around the shape of the buildings. I didn't pencil in my buildings, beforehand, but you certainly could.
I wanted a funky look and playing with perspective can give you that. I've found that perspective doesn't have to be correct if you aim for a cartoony or surreal effect, but if you distort it, try to distort everything the same way. Also, unless you are trying to make something stick out like a sore thumb--make everything distorted, or keep the perspective correct for everything. Mixing the two doesn't work too well, usually.

3. You can get empty Montana Markers and fill them with other brands of fluid acrylic paint. I have one filled with an electric pink from Spectra. I used that to deepen the upper part of the sky--it doe…

A while back I bought a 22 x 26 sheet of Fabriano Tiziano in beautiful aqua color. I tore into smaller sizes and have slowly but surely been tangling on them. I've only got a few pieces left before I'll be finished and will then sew them into a book.

This one was drawn using a 0.4 Hi-Tec-C Maica pen in blue-black. I love these pens. They are a hard-tipped gel ink pen. The ink flows more steadily than you find with many gel ink pens. They aren't water-proof--in fact, you can make glorious watercolors with them, but, as you can see here, they work beautifully for line work.

I combined the prompts #37-Newspaper and #38-Rhyme Time. Although I'd meant this to look like a map, it more resembles a postage stamp, lol. Nonetheless, I'm happy enough with it.

To get my rhymes, I went through the newspaper looking for words that rhymed. Finding them proved harder than I expected, and took three times as long as creating the actual page. I finally found 5 sets that rhymed and these became my street 'corners'. You may not be able to read the words in the painting so I list them for you:

The corner of Art and Cart
The corner of Deer and Beer
The corner of Clock and Stock
The corner of Turn and Fern
The corner of Blight and Light

My process is listed below. I had camera problems so unfortunately there are only a couple of photos.

Supplies:
(I've supplied links, so you can get more info on the products I used, but please shop around to be sure you get the best prices.)

One of the things I like to do with most papers, even if they are not watercolor--especially if they are not watercolor, is to try a very wet medium on them. Like watercolor. The way the paper handles tells me quite a bit about the overall quality.

So even though this is a drawing paper, I decided to try watercolor on one half. It handled very well, with only the slightest of dimpling, no curling or buckling and no pilling even working with wet into wet (wet paint added to water or other wet paint already on the paper). It didn't take scrubbing too well, but that's to be expected.

For the second piece, I used a Pigma Micron and did my Zentangle-Inspired Art thing. The pen fa…

Okay. I admit it. I have no idea what paper or medium I used to do this one. I'm pretty sure it was in one of my journals, and markers of some kind. Usually, I try to add that information when I name a piece, but I didn't this time.

In my own defense, I crank out this stuff so fast that I have a backpile of art and it might be months before I get around to posting something. I'll usually remember if I did something for a review because I'm thinking of what I'll say as I create the piece. But otherwise, if I don't label the memory's disabled!

I've had these blocks of Sennelier Watercolor paper that a friend gave me for quite some time. The problem was that the pages were glued together so strongly that I had the worst time trying to seperate them, and always ended up tearing the paper.

Recently, I bought an Unblocker from Cheap Joe's. It's just a little plastic tool but oh, my it does the job! Now I can use these blocks without fear of ruining what I've just painted. Note, that a plastic knife might (might) work almost as well.

This was a quick study I did without any photo reference after we did sunsets in my watercolor class. It brought home to me how much the paper does matter. The paper can effect the colors and textures of your paint.

I found the colors (Gamboge, Cadmium Orange, Naphthol Red (just a touch) and Ultramarine Blue) were more muted and subtle than with the other papers I had used. The texture of the paper showed up more. I like it!

I picked a package of some heart-shaped Khadi paper from Daniel Smith's a while back. It's a hand-made paper with a sort of linen-like texture. Watercolor goes down nicely, and it's easy to lift. I want to get some large pieces, but meanwhile, these are great to play with. Last night, I did a Parrot's Heart.

Each Wednesday for 22 weeks, I'll be sharing artwork that was done on paper from a Schut Papier sampler. I'll be giving you a little information about each of the papers.

Schut Aquarelbloc Terschelling RUW 300 grams/140 lbs Watercolor Rough

Acid free, white watercolour paper, made of 100% wood free cellulose.

Two things you always need to look at with watercolor:The Weight-Even if you've used a particular brand of paper before, you might find that the textures and tooth differ with the weight. The Finish-You'll see the words Cold Press (CP or NOT or Medium Finish), Hot Press (HP or Demi-Satine) and Rough (R) on most watercolor papers. You might also see Soft Press (SP) or other similar designations. This refers to the 'wove finish' or texture created by the machines and tools used to make the paper. There are no standards so a Cold-Press paper from one brand might be more like a Rough in another.

I have limited computer access this week, so I did up my lists ahead of time and they'll be a little sparse. Still some good stuff though!ZentangleWeekly Zentangle Roundup #138 - Zentangle roundup from a year ago!Tangle Patterns - There is usually something new up at Tanglepatterns.com on Wednesday-check it out.

I was playing with a set of Golden's new watercolors--the introductory set with Indian Yellow, Cerulean Blue Chromium, Ultramarine Blue, Pyrrole Red Light, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and Burnt Sienna (Natural).

Tom Lynch is an artist that has many how to books on watercolors. His paintings are bright and vibrant and pack a punch. However, he uses many colors that are considered unstable and will fade quickly. His books tend to promote his techniques without sharing too much detail on how to achieve them. Having said that, if you are willing to read closely, there are some important techniques that can be found in them.

Recently, Daniel Smith's had a sale, and included were some Holbein paints that were part of a Tom Lynch palette. Small tubes, but still the four colors were under $4! I couldn't resist since I was buying some other things as well.

The four colors were Holbein Peacock Blue, Permanent Yellow Lemon, Permanent Green Light and Opera. I added Holbein Burnt Sienna, which is another color I know Tom Lynch uses.

I think some of these colors may even be obsolete these days, but they're fun to play with. I think I can get the same or similar results using Phthalo Blu…

A while back I bought this Life Vermilion Notebook out of curiosity, was very impressed, but had other reviews to do first. Along the way, the notebook got buried and I forgot about it. Alas! I do this kind of thing too often!

While cleaning up, I found it again, was again impressed and decided I'd better do this review while I was thinking of it, because ...have I mentioned...I was impressed.

Look and Feel
I've reviewed several high-quality notebooks in the past and the Life Vermilion holds it's own, but why was I impressed? Because it's different. It has quality, but stands out as it's own animal. Again, why?

Each Wednesday for 22 weeks, I'll be sharing artwork that was done on paper from a Schut Papier sampler. I'll be giving you a little information about each of the papers. And, okay--I called it Watercolor Wednesday, but half the time I'll be showing you pen, fountain pen and marker work on drawing paper. So, sue me, lol. I just liked the alliteration of Watercolor Wednesday!

Schut Laurier 250 grams/115 lbs Printmaking paper

Printmaking paper made of 100% cotton. This is a heavy, but flexible paper that folds without creasing or breaking. It has a soft finish, almost fuzzy so it might clog some pens.

Since it is printmaking paper, it would be great for Gelli plates and other types of hand printmaking. I don't get into that much so I used fountain pens on the first piece and Pigma Graphic .05 Sepia on the second. Despite my comment about clogging, I had no problems in that area. I'd still hesitate to use finer point pens, especially those with fabric tips lik…

I've been struggling with this St-Armand Watercolor paper. It's a very rough textured, extremely absorbent paper and I've found it difficult to work with.

But as often as not, challenging paper isn't bad paper. It's just challenging. You have to learn how to use it. With this piece, I felt I used it to advantage, getting brighter colors and with lots of dry brushing to get texture from the rough surface.

This happens to be the last piece of this paper that I have. I'm debating whether to buy more. Probably I won't just because I have quite a bit of paper already. I'll certainly keep it in mind though because it might be just the right paper for certain subjects.

Last Thursday, I posted one of the paintings I did in my watercolor class (KD Allegri Art).

We were focusing on the human figure (with a theme of Africa) and I had time to do a second painting. I had a reference photo (from the Morguefile) of a group of women dressed in black and white clothing that was adorned with patterns. Instead of going for color, I decided to do a monochromatic painting (well, I actually used two colors-Gamboge for the background, and the rest was a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna, but I used different combinations of the two colors to get some variation).

I did very little shading on the dresses, letting the patterns define their shape.

Last week I shared a Leopard that I made with Amazing Mold Putty and origami. Well, I fell in love with that origami piece and decided to preserve it forever. Today my post at the Amazing Mold Putty Blog shows you how I suspended my origami piece in resin. It's Origami! It's a Double Whammy! It's an Amazing Mold Putty Piece!Yes! It's a Dollar Tree find and more!

In last week's watercolor class (KD Allegri Art) we focused on drawing the human figure. The theme of this 7 week course has been Africa. The focus is on a loose style that takes advantage of the inherent nature of watercolor.

The idea for the paintings we did was to focus on the human form, not the detail, and to have fun with the colorful clothing. So I did!

This was done on Shizen paper. It has a rough texture, but the finish keeps the color on the surface. It's easy to lift color for effects, and to help correct with mistakes. Both sides of the paper can be used. It's also deckled on all four sides, which is nice.

The paper is not cut to exact size--it's hand torn. So even though the package says 8x8, in some places it might be 7 1/2 and others might be 8 1/2. This is both good and bad when it comes to framing. It works great for a 'floating' frame, where you put the paper on top of the matting instead of below.

Recently, I was sent a sampler of Schut papers. It contained 23 sheets with a mix of watercolor, acrylic, drawing and printmaking papers. Also included were the covers that would come with the block or pad of papers.

With a couple of exceptions, I did two paintings per sheet, 1/2 page each. On the back of each painting, I made notes regarding the qualities of the paper and anything I wanted to remember about the painting itself.

Once I finished testing all the papers, I folded them in half and bound them into two journals, one for the watercolors and one for the other types of paper. I decided to add the covers as well because of the information they contained. Plus it made the journals funky!

I won't post all the notes, because I wasn't being careful with my handwriting--more trying to get the information down while it was fresh. I usually do take notes like this, if I'm going to review something, just not on the drawing/paintings itself.
But to show you what I mean…